Rate Article:

The restive Sinai region has been a hot spot for militant activity since former president Mohammad Morsi was ousted in 2013. (AFP/File)

Egyptian military forces detected a convoy carrying supplies for militants in North Sinai, the army spokesman said on Sunday.

Armed forces spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a statement published on his official Facebook page that military forces from the Third Field Army were carrying out a patrol when they detected a convoy of camels used in supplying “terrorists” with weapons, ammunition, and food near the area of Abarqain and Mount Umm Hlouf.

After searching the convoy, army forces “found sacks of TNT explosives, a number of machine guns and ammunition,” the army spokesman added.

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24, in the worst militant attack since Mursi's ouster.

Egypt's most dangerous militant group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video released on November 14, shortly after pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to the attack.